John Morley: “Assuredly not,” he replied: “in 1882 Ireland seemed to be literally a society on the eve of dissolution.”

I am trying to feel my way through the most difficult problem, the most difficult situation that a responsible Government can have to face.

There lay Ireland,—squalid, dismal, sullen, dull, expectant, sunk deep in hostile intent.

Do not weary or fret or nag him with your superior wisdom.

The general situation in Egypt had latterly become one in which everything was governed by sheer military violence.